Gen Nakaoka
Gen Nakaoka (中岡 元 Nakaoka Gen, born 1937 or 1938) is a Japanese teenager and artist who survived the Hiroshima atomic bombing with his mother Kimie and her unborn child when he was seven. The protagonist of the Barefoot Gen manga series, Gen is the only character to appear in every installment in the franchise and comes to inspire his peers to oppose nuclear war with his drive and adventurous spirit. Background Gen was born between 1937 and 1938 to Daikichi and Kimie Nakaoka. An innocent schoolboy who helped his brother Shinji and his father in his family's wheat field in Hiroshima throughout World War II, Gen lived as happily as he could with his family with the food and money they could squirrel away from the war effort. After seeing his brothers Koji and Akira off to naval service and a school evacuation, respectively, Gen survived the atomic bombing of his hometown along with his mother Kimie and witnessed lasting consequences of the weapon's deployment, from turning local citizens into "zombies" who limped with melted skin to causing radiation sickness in those who were caught in the bomb's explosive range. Failing to save his father, Eiko, and Shinji from burning alive while trapped under their collapsed house tore Gen's life asunder and left him to survive with what little he and Kimie had left. Personality A brave and daring young boy, Gen has a larger-than-life, stubborn, and optimistic character that has assisted him through the difficulties of World War II and the havoc that the Americans had wrought in Hiroshima. Initially, Gen was torn between his devotion to his family and the nationalism that his teachers sought to indoctrinate in him, as he grew up in a nation that treated war as a sport yet under a family that shook their fists at it for all the right reasons. This conflict of loyalty led Gen to grow into a morally upright person who valued life at all costs and by any means he sees fit, as shown when he beat Ryuta Kondo for making fun of his neighbor Pak - an echo of Gen's own father chastising him for making fun of Koreans, which Daikichi believed that imperial Japanese rhetoric encouraged. More to be added Summary of relationships Family * Daikichi Nakaoka † - father * Kimie Nakaoka † - mother * Koji Nakaoka - older brother * Eiko Nakaoka † - older sister * Akira Nakaoka - older brother * Shinji Nakaoka † - younger brother * Tomoko Nakaoka † - younger sister * Ryuta Kondo - younger adoptive brother, best friend, and temporary enemy Allies * Pak - close friend, neighbor, and benefactor * Katsuko - friend * Musubi † - friend * Natsue † - friend and rescuee * Mitsuko † - former love interest * Seiji Yoshida † * Kachin † * Amamori - former classmate and rival * Sato - former teacher * Noro Enemies * Denjiro Samejima - chairman and bully * United States Air Force * Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission * Douglas MacArthur * Yakuza - harassers ** Masa - intruder * Noro's uncle * Tatsuo - bully and bullying victim * Takeko - bully and bullying victim * Tatsuo and Takeko's grandmother - bully and attempted murder victim * Tetsu - attempted assailant and fight victim * Shige - attempted assailant and fight victim Category:Alive Category:Characters Category:Hiroshima atomic bombing survivors Category:Criminals